Things to Check for when Purchasing a Domain Name
by Frank Jovine on 07/17/2009 in Internet
When you buy a previously-active/currently-owned domain, you have no idea about the history of the URL. What if that domain was a spam site back in 2004? I don’t think search engines ever really forgive spam sites. They don’t forget. By purchasing a new domain name that has never been owned, you know everything about its history.
You need to do your homework before making any domain purchase. There’s a big business in domain selling through auctions, but as a consumer, you need to know what you are buying.
How can you check if a domain is bad?
Run a check on Domain Tools (http://www.domaintools.com/) to establish some basic background information. Take particular note of the ‘Registry Data’, domain name age, and the other key information.
To find out what the site was before, you can use the Way Back Machine at www.archive.org. The reason for this is you want to know what the site was when it was owned by its previous owner/s. If the site was used as a child porn site, you will want to pass for obvious reasons.
Is the site listed in the Google index? Just because it has PageRank, doesn’t mean it is still listed, so check. The best way to do this is to check the Google Cache. Do a query in Google for – cache:domain.com (home page check) cache:domain.com/subpage.html (sub page check).
Be careful of registering a Trademarked name that you do not own. Legislation has been passed making “CyberSquating” illegal. Be ethical in your domain name registrations to avoid possible legal pitfalls. Speaking of pitfalls, there is a wide-spread issue with domain fraud online. Make sure if you are buying an existing domain, it is legit.
To check for available domains and expiring domains try http://www.nameboy.com/. They also offer free domain name appraisals.
Good luck and we hope you find this useful on your next domain purchase.
Things to Check for when Purchasing a Domain Name | TechJaws … – domains blog
Jul 17th, 2009
[...] the original here: Things to Check for when Purchasing a Domain Name | TechJaws … This entry was posted on 17/07/2009 (Friday) at 2:51 pm and is filed under Object. You can [...]
Christie
Jul 18th, 2009
This is great to know. Last year I bought a domain name and started blogging on it and then found that Google was not indexing it all – it was “banned” from Google because it had been a link farm. I had to tell them that this was a new owner, legit blog, etc. But for someone who’s spending some bucks on a domain with page rank, etc., it really pays to kick the tires on that domain name! Thanks for the tip.
Frank J
Jul 18th, 2009
Chrsities,
Great example of what people need to know before purchasing a domain. Thank you for providing your experience!
John Sullivan
Jul 18th, 2009
nice work interesting
Stumbled
Frank J
Jul 18th, 2009
John,
I am glad I can share this information and as you can see Christie provided evidence that this issue does exist.
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